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Enabling Frame Rate Counters for HTML Applications in Windows 8

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7 Oct 2011CPOL2 min read 16.5K   7   1
A look at how to enable Frame Rate Counter for HTML Applications in Windows 8

Introduction

Just the other day, I blogged about “Enabling Frame Rate Counter for XAML Applications in Windows 8”. At the very end of that post, I reminded everyone that method does not work for HTML / JS Metro Applications. But, we are in luck as Mathias Jourdain provided sample code for accomplishing this in HTML / JS in his Build talk. The only problem was that he didn’t describe how to hook this into a new application to actually use. That is going to be the focus of today’s blog post.

Let’s get started.

Unlike XAML applications, this must be done using code. So, click on “Visual Studio 11” to begin.

 Image 1

Go ahead and click on “New Project…”

Select JavaScript –> Windows Metro Style –> Blank Application. Finally, give it a name and hit OK.

 Image 2

Our default.html will be displayed. We are going to keep things simple and only add a <p> tag between the body and give it an id. Below is some sample code:

XML
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title>FRCounter</title>
    <!-- WinJS references -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.codeproject.com/winjs/css/ui-dark.css" />
    <script src="http://www.codeproject.com/winjs/js/base.js"></script>
    <script src="http://www.codeproject.com/winjs/js/wwaapp.js"></script>
    <!-- FRCounter references -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.codeproject.com/css/default.css" />
    <script src="http://www.codeproject.com/js/default.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <p id="myText" />
</body>
</html>

This paragraph tag will display our framerate when the application is running.

Now, if you switch over to the /js/default.js, then you will see the following code:

JavaScript
(function () {
    'use strict';
    // Uncomment the following line to enable first chance exceptions.
    // Debug.enableFirstChanceException(true);

    WinJS.Application.onmainwindowactivated = function (e) {
        if (e.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) {
            // TODO: startup code here
        }
    }

    WinJS.Application.start();
})();

You are going to replace it with this code:

JavaScript
var lastUIRefreshFPS = 0;
var frameCounter = 0;

(function () {
    'use strict';
    // Uncomment the following line to enable first chance exceptions.
    // Debug.enableFirstChanceException(true);

    WinJS.Application.onmainwindowactivated = function(e) {
        if (e.detail.kind === Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.ActivationKind.launch) {
               renderLoopFPS();
        }
    }

    WinJS.Application.start();
})();

(function renderLoopFPS() {
    var now = new Date().getTime() % 1000;

    if (now < lastUIRefreshFPS) {
        // Display the FPS
        myText.innerText = frameCounter + " frames";

        // Reset the FPS counter
        frameCounter = 0;
    }

    // Increment the FPS counter
    frameCounter += 1;
    lastUIRefreshFPS = now;
    msRequestAnimationFrame(renderLoopFPS);
})();

I made some very minor changes to this code and hooked it up to the onmainwindowactivated event. This uses the msRequestAnimationFrame method. You can read its documentation here.

If you run the app, you should get the following framerate in the middle of the screen as shown below:

 Image 3

It is quite a ways off compared to the detail of the XAML version of the framerate counter and was also more difficult to do (screenshots of XAML version below).

 Image 4

Image 5

Now it is time for you to make the decision, do you develop in XAML / C# or HTML / JS? In this blog, we will be diving into XAML / C# with Metro, but may post the occasional HTML / JS app.

Thanks for reading!

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) Telerik
United States United States
Michael Crump is a Silverlight MVP and MCPD that has been involved with computers in one way or another for as long as he can remember, but started professionally in 2002. After spending years working as a systems administrator/tech support analyst, Michael branched out and started developing internal utilities that automated repetitive tasks and freed up full-time employees. From there, he was offered a job working at McKesson corporation and has been working with some form of .NET and VB/C# since 2003.

He has worked at Fortune 500 companies where he gained experience in embedded systems design and software development to systems administration and database programming, and everything in between.

His primary focus right now is developing healthcare software solutions using Microsoft .NET technologies. He prefers building infrastructure components, reusable shared libraries and helping companies define, develop and automate process standards and guidelines.

You can read his blog at: MichaelCrump.net or follow him on Twitter at @mbcrump.

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